Relentless efforts paid off: Army

A day after six Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) terrorists were gunned down in north Kashmir’s Hajin area, top security force officers in Kashmir said the ‘relentless focus’ on security operation has led to  elimination of hardcore terrorists and brought remarkable changes in the Valley. General Officer Commanding of XV Corps Lt General JS Sandhu said that 190 terrorists have been killed so far in 2017.

“We have had a number of successful operations in Kashmir region this year. We have killed about 190 terrorists as on date in 2017. Out of these, 80 terrorists were local and the remaining 110 were foreign terrorists,” he told reporters at a Press conference.

He said 66 foreign terrorists were killed during infiltration attempts along the Line of Control (LoC).

The Corps Commander flanked by State police chief Dr SP Vaid spoke to reporters in the backdrop of killing of six LeT terrorists, including a close relative of Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, during a daylong gunfight in Hajin area of north Kashmir on Saturday. An elite Garuda Commando of the Indian Air Forces (IAF), Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala, 31, was also martyred in the encounter.

He said the Hajin has been focus area of security forces for the past several months.

“The terrorist had resorted to some atrocities in the area. As a strategy, we had launched several operations in Hajin mid-September onwards. We were practically launching search operations on a daily basis. We had inducted Special Forces into the area, and with coordination of the intelligence network, police and CRPF, the law and order in Hajin was brought under control,” said Lt Gen Sandhu, adding the village of Chandrageer, where the encounter took place, was under surveillance for the past two to three days.

“These six were all foreign terrorists led by Mehmood Bhai and comprised the bulk of the Hajin group. I want to highlight that the Hajin group (of LeT) has largely been decimated,” he said. “We will continue the operations and we hope to restore peace in the Valley as soon as possible.”

Vaid said the area has been cleaned up and hoped the killing of terrorists must have brought relief to the local people who were yearning for a peaceful life.

Speaking on the occasion, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Munir Khan said that the LeT leadership was pumping in close relatives to Kashmir in order to boost the morale of their cadre.

He said the outfit was facing leadership crisis after its top commanders were killed in security operations.

The officers urged local terrorists to surrender and join the mainstream. “With the surrender of the footballer (Majid Khan of Anantnag), I feel we are at a phase where a lot of boys want to come back… We want the youth, who have joined terror groups, to return.

We are getting feelers in this regard from various places, but we have also understood that that some youth do not know how to return,” Vaid said.

He said the security forces would provide all the help to those youths who decided to shun violence and join mainstream. “They will not be harassed and will be helped more than what they expect,” the police chief said.

Gen Sandhu said the security forces have embarked on two-line operation to combat terrorism. “One line is the counter terror operations, wherein we are targeting the terrorists. Simultaneously, we want the local terrorists to return to the mainstream,” he said.